Sunday, November 10, 2013

The temple - True Order of Prayer

I couldn't believe that after a lifetime in the Church as an active and fully believing member I hadn't been taught the "true order of prayer", or rather the True Order of Prayer.Towards the end of the temple endowment the officiator calls up couples from the audience to stand in a circle to pray. That's not all that strange, really (Mormons pray in circles fairly regularly as family and Sunday School classes, etc.), but this was not your typical prayer. The prayer circles in the temple gather around the alter (anyone feeling any animosity towards someone in the group is invited to leave the circle), review all of the Freemasonry they've just performed, raise their hands in the air and chant in unison "Oh, God, hear the words from my mouth!" three times, and repeat a prayer sentence by sentence as someone says it. It's weird and you can watch it on YouTube. If the word cult hadn't come to my mind before this, it certainly hit me hard now. Like many first timers through the temple I found myself wondering if I had just joined a cult. I had no idea how this was supposed to be holy or spiritual. It just felt silly. And slightly spooky too, I guess. No, no, it can't be a cult. It's not that weird. This is where God wants me. It'll make sense the more I come to the temple... Oh, what's that? They used to speak Adamic as part of the True Order of Prayer? ... Um... Awesome? ...

About Me

A Mormon who doubted his doubts until he could only doubt that continuing to doubt certain doubts would bring about a happy and productive life, unless happy and productive means constantly ignoring incongruities in the worldview and lifestyle one has been born into, which it might.